And the Sky Will Tell Me
by Psychostick-MCRchik
Summary: White Materia...what exactly is it, anyways? I'd rather not know. Not your typical OC gets sucked into game fic.
1. Where am I?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. I only own myself. Oh, and don't flame. Just offer constructive criticism. Constructive criticism doesn't make you look stupid. "YOUR STORY SUKKKKSSSSS!!!!!!" does. It's really hard to make a good beggining to a story. Especially for one like this.**

**Also, be nice (haha). This is the first Final Fantasy fanfic I have written.**

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My eyes fluttered open at the sound of lightning crashing. I hate storms. I really do.

I arched an eyebrow at the unfamiliar scenery and forced my eyes shut once more. Did I just see a freaking skyscraper??? Maybe I'm just having one of my "drunken dreams" again (as my friends like to call them). This always happens when I drink Coke & play video games late at night. I end up falling asleep & dreaming that I'm actually in the game...and then I wake up in the backyard, covered in soda and shaving cream...yeah...don't ask.

" 'EY! The Shinra building ain't no shelter for you filthy homeless bastards! Get lost!" Yeah...my friends are really trying to make me look stupid now...

"Mrhhmmm...go away...Tyra Banks isn't on yet..." I muttered, smacking the foot that was next to my head. Not exactly a good idea, considering that my actions pissed off the owner of the foot, causing them to kick the side of my head violently.

Now I knew I was awake.

"FUCK!!!!" I looked up at my attacker and saw a spiky, red headed man that seemed strangely familiar. I rubbed the knot on the side of my head shakily, almost too scared to talk. "Wh-wha...what are you doing in my room?" I mentally slapped myself for sounding so stupid. I wasn't in my room anymore. That was pretty obvious. Well, whoever this person was didn't hear what I said, thank god. "Get lost, kid. Shinra doesn't have time to babysit," He muttered through the new cigarrette in his mouth. I watched him blankly as he made his way into the large building.

Did he just say Shinra? Maybe I was still asleep...

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Soooooo...that man said something about Shinra...

But Shinra isn't real. It's just something in a videogame.

But that kick to the head felt pretty real...but then again...he said _Shinra._

Maybe he was on drugs? This can't be real...but he almost gave me friggin brain dammage...

I twisted my Cerberus necklace around my finger nervously, while using my other free hand to mess with my hair on the sore side of my head. I always looked like I was having a seizure when I was nervous. That really wasn't helpful at the moment, considering that the staff & passengers on the train thought I was a psychotic homeless person.

Yeah, my strange disposition made it kinda hard to get on the train. I was kinda twitching and muttering to myself (due to the lack of sleep & excessive caffeine from 7 cans of Coke) when I got up to the entrance of the train. The Shinra soldier standing at the door asked for an ID card...and I ended up stuttering...trying to say god knows what...

Well, you can say that my strange behavior alarmed the guard, making him call a few other guards over to us. They whispered strange things to eachother. It was hard to hear them talk through their helmets, but I ended up catching a few words, such as 'Hojo', 'Jenova Cells', 'Man in the pipe', and 'Sector 5'.

Their whispers stopped abruptly, and they all turned to look at me. Each one of them had a strange smile plastered across their face.

"We're going to take you to Sector 5. You'll be safer there," one of the guards said softly, as if he was talking to a toddler. I wasn't exactly happy with the way they talked to me...

I guess I can't really complain much. Atleast I got on the train.

I stopped rubbing the bump on my head and looked around at the passengers on the train. Most of them appeared to be exhausted Shinra executives. A young woman and her son were sitting directly across from me. I smiled at the young boy as he looked up from his moogle plushie, grinning wildly at me. I giggled to myself at the lack of teeth in his mouth. "The Tooth Moogle is going to visit me tonight!" he exclaimed excitedly, holding up a couple of teeth. "Don't talk to the crazy lady, sweetheart," I overheard the woman mutter. I frowned and shrugged before looking away. I wasn't the kind of person to get upset over a bunch of stupid words. Especially if they came from someone I didn't care about, let alone even know. "They should really keep all of you people locked up, you know? We have enough to worry about already," The woman said to me harshly behind a newspaper. "Well..." I began, just slightly annoyed," We're already locked up, ma'am. That's exactly why no respectable, sane person lives in Midgar." I bit down on my tongue, regretting what I had just said. That was the first time I had _ever_ talked back to someone that wasn't related to me. Everything got dead quiet. I shifted nervously in my seat, noticing the horrible, angry looks I was getting from everyone in the room. "I-I'll just..go...back here..." I whispered, pushing back a red curtain and walking away quickly.

That's where I made another big mistake. Everyone in this train car seemed to be pretty pissed at me, too. Just not for the same reason as those other people.

"YOU! Are you with Shinra?!"

I shrieked and stumbled backwards, falling on my butt. "N...NO!"

Myy heart began beating faster, almost violently. This is just a dream...It's just a dream...I have to keep telling myself that.

"Yo, Barret! Leave her alone. She looks harmless." I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, relieved that I no longer had a giant gun arm shoved in my face.

"Feh. Fine. Git lost, kid."

That was close. WAY too close. I clutched at my necklace and twisted it as I walked through the curtain again.

_**"Attention. We are now approaching the Sector 5 Train Station. All Passengers disembarking at Sector 5, please exit the train now."**_

"This is our stop, sweetheart." I glared at the guard that had grabbed my arm. "I can get off the train by myself, thank you." I gasped as his grip tightened. What the hell is he doing? "We're taking you to a friend of ours. Don't worry, she'll take good care of you," he said, as if he was able to read my mind.

Geez, I'm flattered...not.

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Yeah...that kinda sucked...and It was short...sorry guys. Please review! I've been working on this thing forever! Of course...my laptop keeps shutting off while I type...damn. 

Anyways...I think the Pipe Guy lives in Sector 5...doesn't he? You know, that area where Aeris lives? Is it considered Sector 5??? Sorry, I haven't played the game in forever...sooo...yeah... ;

Oh! I was watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children today, and I kinda noticed something weird. I want to know If this annoys anyone else: Is anyone else freaked out by the fact that Tseng is alive in AC? Didn't he die in the game???? Ugh! That is bugging the crap out of me!!! So if anyone can clear that up..then great. If not...then someone screwed up. lol.

Well, off to write CHAPTER 2!!!!


	2. Wall Market

**Disclaimer: points to Chapter 1 yeah.**

**Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! **

**Lt. Commander Richie: Thanks for that bit of info. P Someone was high when they were making AC. I think... goes to watch it in Japanese**

**Same rules apply. R&R. No flames, just constructive criticism. blah, blah, blah.**

**Oh, and I'll try to make this chapter just a bit longer...Since we are going through Wall Market and all... P**

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"Ugggghhhhhh...uaaaahhhh...yyyyyyrrrrrrrr...Reunion..."

That's the only thing I have heard for the past few hours. Trust me, it gets very annoying after a while.

Well, at this point, I'm pretty convinced that...ugh...'I'm in the world of Final Fantasy VII'. Yeah...groovy...hug a fucking rainbow.

...But how exactly did I get here, anyways?

The last thing I remember was being in my room...

Yes...I was sitting on the floor, all of the lights turned off, twisting my Cerberus necklace (as usual). I had spent the whole day there, in that one spot, twisting the necklace until the little chain links ripped the skin on my hands. The red rhinestones (Cerberus's eyes) on the necklace began glowing a little. Of course I wasn't paying much attention at the time...

"UUUUUUUAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!"

I jumped at the random outburst from Pipe Dude, practically ripping the Cerberus necklace off from my neck. I knew this guy was infested with Genova Cells, but geez. "Hey, buddy! Shut the f---"

"Are you alright?!"

A hysterical Amara (the girl that stands outside of Pipe Dude's pipe) burst into the room, gasping for breath. I looked at her, then at Pipe Dude, then back to her. What the hell was going on?

"What's wrong?" I asked quietly, putting my thoughts into words.

"S-Sector 8 Reactor...AVALANCHE..."

That pretty much explains why they were on the train...

...But why did she come in here to tell us? This guy leaves the freaking news station on 24/7. I would have saw it sooner or later.

"Sorry about scaring you," Amara began, finally catching her breath, "This guy gets kinda violent when the reactors explode. I just wanted to make sure he didn't hurt you."

I smiled and nodded.

I was grateful for her kindness, but at the same time...it was annoying...

Just like this whole 'kid' thing. I mean, sure, I'm 16...but I act mature...don't I???

I brushed a chunk of blonde hair behind my ear and walked outside. I looked up at the plate, ignoring the cool breeze that was now freezing me. This whole Sector 8 thing...They'll go after the Sector 5 reactor, and Cloud will fall into the church, where he will meet Aeris again...and then...they'll be here...

If I don't screw this up, they might take me with them...

...yeah right.

I should know Cloud better than that. He didn't even want Aeris to go with him when he went to Sector 6. Why would he take me with him?

I'll just fucking wing it. Whatever happens, happens.

* * *

"This guy is really sick." I cracked my eyes open slightly, looking for the owner of the soft voice.

Had I fallen asleep after the explosion yesterday? And slept through the Sector 5 explosion?

I looked up to see Aeris & Cloud standing outside of the pipe. They were actually standing there...just a couple of feet away...

"He passed out nearby and Amara helped him here." Amara smiled softly and approached the two. "He's doing slightly better today. I still can't get him to say anything except for 'Reunion', though. Oh, and they found another one wandering around the train station near the Shinra building."

Normal speaking voices died down to hushed whispers, and wandering eyes made their way over to me. I hate it when that happens.

Cloud and Aeris slowly walked into the pipe, still staring at me.

"...What did you say to them?" I asked in a hushed tone, as usual.

"Aeris and her mother take care of a lot of homeless children and teens around here...I just asked her to watch after you for a while. You don't seem to be insane like this guy in here." I grinned wildly and hugged her.

That takes care of my Aeris/Cloud problem.

The 'couple' finally walked out of the pipe several minutes later. I continuously brushed my bangs out of my face, trying not to look up at Aeris and Cloud. "She shouldn't be much trouble. Hell, I can barely get her to talk." I jumped slightly, keeping my eyes glued to the ground as someone gently held onto my wrist. "It's ok. My mom will take good care of you." I looked up at her and nodded slowly, not sure what to say.

I looked down at the ground once more as we made our way to the house in the back of the Sector 5 Slums. I barely moved out of nervousness, only nodding my head whenever Aeris talked to me or asked me something.

* * *

"I'm home, mom." Aeris finally released me, only to grab onto Cloud's wrist and walk him over to Elmyra. "This is Cloud, my bodyguard."

Yup. Here it goes. Aeris's 'mom' freaking out.

I looked around the room, tuning out as they spoke. The room reminded me a lot of the living room in my house. The room was completely clean, and completely decorated with oversized flower arrangements (what the hell is it with old people and flowers??). I guess the flowers came from the Church...

I frowned slightly and looked away, not wanting to think of home.

"Come on! We'll share a room."

I must've had the most idiotic expression on my face, because Aeris began giggling as she led me upstairs. I hate it when people laugh at me...

"I'm taking Cloud to Sector 7 tomorrow, so we have to share a room with each other tonight." I nodded and followed her into the room.

She started giggling again. How annoying...

It makes me want to slam my head into the wall..."You should talk more."

Oh, fuck. Not those same four words again...

"I feel like i'm talking to a wall...or Cloud!"

Just as Aeris had said his name, Cloud ascended from the stairs. "You need to go through Sector 6 to get to Sector 7. Sector 6 is a little dangerous, so you'd better get some rest tonight." I watched quietly as he walked past us to the guest room. Do I really act like that? Well, whatever...

"Cloud...Good night." A frown took over the smile on Aeris's face, and she rushed downstairs with me following behind her.

It's kinda weird...watching this whole Aeris/Cloud dilemma happen right in front of you...

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Drool streamed down the side of my face and onto the floor, waking me up instantly. Eww. I sat up and wiped off what was left on my face and looked at the clock.

"2:17 a.m.?"

"What are you doing up so early?" Aeris yawned. I jerked my head over to her, not expecting her to be awake so early, either. "Did I wake you up?" I wispered. She shook her head and glided over to the door quietly. "No. I think Cloud's trying to leave his escort here...why are we whispering?"

I sighed and brushed my hand through my messy, choppy, blonde hair.. I always whisper when I talk. People just end up whispering back for some reason...

"I'm going after Cloud. I'll be back later."

"I'm going too!" I put my hand over my mouth, surprised by my sudden outburst.

"Well then...We'd better take a shortcut. We don't want him to get there before we do." We both smiled and dashed down the stairs.

I found it a little strange that Elmyra wasn't home...Oh well. It made leaving the house a little easier.

Well...things WERE easy...before Aeris led me through a maze of broken down trailers and scrap metal. "W-wait! Ugh...I-I can't r-run fast..."

We finally stopped. Well...I kinda kept going...sliding, to be exact. I'm horrible at stopping once I start running. Aeris giggled as I slid into a pile of scrap metal. "Oh! Here he comes! Act angry!"

Easy for her to say. She didn't bruise herself to death on a bunch of metal things...

Cloud's eyes looked as if they would pop out of the sockets. I smiled, amused by his expression. Of course, I was also smiling to hide my 'HOLY SHIT THAT HURT!!' expression.

"You're up bright and early." Aeris placed her hands on her hips and tried to act like she was angry.

Of course, this is Aeris that we're talking about, so she did a horrible job at it.

"How could I ask you to go along when I knew it would be dangerous?" I repeated sarcastically in my mind. I haven't played this game in years, but I still remember everything they said. Kinda.

"Are you guys done??? I don't want to get attacked by monkeys..."

They stopped and gave me a weird look. Boy did I feel stupid...

Atleast I thought that the monsters were monkeys...that's what they looked like on the game...

"Right...well...We have to go through the slum in Sector 6 to get to Tifa's 7th Heaven. Let's go!"

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Walking through Sector 6 was...'interesting'. I personally didn't enjoy making my way across the broken ground. Why? Because I ended up falling. I didn't just fall anywhere, though. I fell straight into a Hell House nest. Getting attacked by miniature houses with skulls is not fun. Especially if you're a defenseless wimp like me. I sat back, freaking out like a little kid while Aeris and Cloud beat the shit out of it.

Boy, I sure am useful.

I was happy to finally reach the old playground. There weren't any monsters around. Hooray.

"The gate to Sector 7 is in there." Aeris pointed cheerfully to a giant steel wall behind her. I frowned a little. I kinda wanted to see Sector 7...but it's too late now. It'll be destroyed once we get there.

"Thanks. I guess this is goodbye. You gonna be alright going home?"

"Oh no! What ever will I do?!" Aeris and I blurted out at the same time. We both looked at eachother and giggled."Is that what you want me to say?"

Cloud looked as if he was thinking this over. A few seconds later he sighed and shrugged his arms. "Fine. I guess I have no choice but to take you two with me to Sector 7..."

"We could do that. But won't we be in your way?"

Of course, Aeris was talking about Tifa. Cloud's face was now twisted into an idiotic expression. Typical guy thing. "What do you mean in the way?" I sighed and walked over to the swingset. We were gonna be here for a while...

I watched blankly as they talked about SOLDIER. I wasn't listening, though. I've heard (or read. whatever) this conversation like 328508504207 times already. It's kinda boring after the first time. I rocked back and forth on the swing, looking over to the Sector 7 gate. I wanted Tifa to come through that gate now. I didn't like sitting here. I didn't like listening to Cloud tell Aeris about Zack's life. I didn't like being _here._ Any other Final Fantasy VII fan would flip if they were here...but I honestly hated it. I'll get back home someday...I know I will...After all. This whole thing is _**fake**_

Atleast that's what I kept telling myself.

I nearly fell off from the swingset when the gate finally creaked open.

"Tifa?!" I stood up at the sound of Cloud's voice, looking around mindlessly. Before I knew it, Cloud and Aeris dashed past me, leaving me there with a stupid look on my face.

I really need to stop doing that.

* * *

Wall Market was exactly the way I thought it would be. Trashy, filled with prostitutes, and very frightening...especially for a teenage girl.

"Ok...we need to start asking everyone about Tifa...so...kid--"

"It's Ashley, thank you. And no, I'm not fucking going anywhere by myself," I blurted out, sounding very panicky.

"...Alright, then. We need to find out where Tifa went. Let's look over there, first."

Of course, he was pointing to the Honey Bee Inn. I shook my head and gave him a strange look.

"W-what?? There are a lot of people over there!"

Whatever you say, Cloud. Whatever you say.

I ended up staying back with Aeris as Cloud talked to the hopeless romantics. I didn't want to get anywhere near the place. I was really glad when Cloud came back only seconds later with the information he needed. "She's at Don Corneo's mansion...wherever the hell that is..."

"It's at the back of Wall Market." They both stared at me strangely. "Uh...you didn't see that huge building when we came in???" I asked quietly. They still stood there, never taking their eyes off me. Awkward. I hate that. "Let's go!" I dragged them through the maze of people, scowling at every guy that leered at me and Aeris. I ran faster, swearing under my breath, wanting to reach the mansion faster. Moments later I found myself out of the sea of people, and standing in front of the guard at the door. I hated it when I blanked out while walking...

"This is the mansion of Don Corneo, the most powerful man in Wall Market. Look 'ere, buddy. The Don's not into men, so don't let me catch you around here again..." The man cut his eyes over to Aeris and I, grinning creepily. "Hey, you got some cute ones with you!" I grabbed Aeris's and Cloud's wrists and dragged them over to a cart. This place was really freaking me out now...

"Hey, this look's like the Don's mansion." No shit. That's what the man just said. "Ashley and I'll go take a look."

Wait right there...what?!? I shook my head and looked at her as if she was a transvestite version of Sephiroth (don't ask...). "No!" Cloud and I blurted out at the same time.

"You can't!" I nodded in agreement with Cloud. I felt kinda stupid acting out like that...especially when I already knew what was going to happen...I just didn't like the idea of getting dragged into that kind of situation.

"C'mon! We're going to find Cloud a pretty dress!" Aeris giggled.

Did I just blank out AGAIN??? God, this is getting annoying.

I grabbed onto Aeris's wrist once more as we made our way through the sea of people. She was the only person I felt safe around (sorry to the Cloud fans out there).

"Did you see a dress store when we came in here?"

I nodded and pointed straight ahead of us. I dashed through the crowd again, knocking over a few people in the process and pissing them off.

This place is awfully crowded for a whore town...but then again, I don't normally go through a lot of places like this...

"Excuse me! I'd like to get a dress." Aeris asked softly as we approached the counter. The woman at the counter began fidgeting and looking towards the door. "Umm, it might take a little time. Will that be alright?"

"What's the problem?"

"Well, my father, the owner, has bdjf----"

Yup, blanking out again. Damn my ADD brain. I paced back and forth, waiting for the woman to stop talking. I really didn't want to be here anymore, and I think i've made that pretty clear to all of you. We can get out of here a lot quicker if I help them out...but wouldn't that make me look suspicious If I knew where everything was??? Hell, I really don't care at this point.

"All right, we'll do something. Let's go, Cloud!"

"Follow me," I muttered quietly as we approached the entrance. I was surprised to see that they listened to me. I was atleast expecting some kind of objection from Cloud.

I was surprised to see that the crowd had died down a little. I suppose that most of them were at the Honey Bee Inn...

We dashed through the alleyway and stood outside of the trashy looking bar. I winced at the strong smell of booze flowing from the place. I absolutely hated alcohol...

"It's that guy over there," I muttered, pointing to a middle aged man sitting alone at the bar. "Ghh...go talk to 'im...Ihgghhmm...I'm going to be sick..." I dashed out of the pub, barely finishing my sentence.

Maybe I should pick some of Cloud's stuff up while I'm out here...

I finally shook my head and pulled my t-shirt over my nose to block out some of the stench. I'd rather vomit to death from the smell of beer than wander around Wall Market by myself. This is no place for a teenage girl.

* * *

About 17 minutes later, Aeris & Cloud exited from the pub. I didn't know that until Aeris shook my shoulder, though. I had passed out from the alcohol fumes, or atleast that's what she had told me.

I tapped my nails against the front desk impatiently as we waited for Cloud to try on his dress. Sure, he only took a few seconds to put it on in the game, but in real life, he took _forever._ Every once in a while, we would get a "where the hell does this go?!" or an "uhhh...did I put this on right?"

Everyone in the room was pretty entertained by this. Except for me. I just yawned and examined my long fingernails as usual.

"Ghh...how do you put this on??" Aeris rolled her eyes and pulled back the curtain, sending Cloud into a panic attack.

"Whoa! What are you doing?!"

Aeris tilted her head sideways and thought for a moment. "It's still not right...A wig! That's what you need!"

"That's not the only thing he needs" I muttered to myself, hoping that no one caught that.

"What's that?" Aeris asked, turning her head towards me. I mentally slapped myself for saying that out loud in the first place.

I shook my head and walked outside. "I didn't say anything."

* * *

I stood in the gym wide eyed, both of my hands filled with random things such as a tiara, lace lingerie, perfume, and a bunch of other useless crap I had talked Cloud into getting for his...outfit. Of course, it wasn't the stuff that made me wide eyed, It was the..._thing_ standing in front of the wrestling ring.

"Aeris...Is that a man or a woman...???"

"...I'm not sure..."

Yes...Cloud was standing next to me...IN MAKEUP. And I STILL thought that 'Big Bro', or whatever the hell his name is, was the weirdest looking person in the room.

"You the one...who wants to be cute?" I tried not to laugh at the way he said that. Trust me, it was hard.

"Cute?"

He looks pretty damn cute already with that bright red lipstick on.

At this point, it was almost painfully impossible to hold in my laughter. I threw my head down and made sure that no one could see me grinning through my hair.

"And about the wig..."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard. But it'll cost ya."

And whatever did he mean by that?? Hell, I need to get my mind out of the gutter and get serious again.

Apparently Aeris & Cloud were surprised that we were talking to THE Beautiful Big Bro...whoever the hell that is...I never really understood that part. "Nevermind that, get over 'ere. Now, whoever has the most squats after 30 seconds gets the wig."

...Ok..._squats???_ I never really got that, either. I also didn't understand how some big, muscular guy lost to Cloud while doing squats.

"Aaaannnd...time! He had 15, and you had 20. You're really something. Well, I'm a man of my word. Enjoy the wig...freak."

And that had to be one of the most awkward things to happen while I was with them...at the moment, that is. We still haven't been into The Don's place yet. Not that I actually want to go, really.

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Yeah...I still think i'm doing a horrible job. (

Things will get "interesting" in the next chapter, though. lol

You know what to do! Review! Or no Chapter 3 for yooouuuuuuu! (that's a lie. I'll post it anyways).

yup...off to begin chapter 3.


	3. The Don's Mansion

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Final Fantasy. If I did, I'd make AC less...screwed up.**

**I just drank some nasty-ass green tea...It undid my writers block. So thank the nasty green tea for the new chapter. :P**

**Devil-Speaker: Glad ya liked the Big Bro thing. XD hooray for trannies! lol**

**Lt. Commander Richie: Yes...THE JAPANESE VERSION WAS AWESOME!!! (insert insanity here) I'm going to watch it again after I post this.**

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"Hmm, not bad. Looks good on ya."

I smiled and shook my head at the sight. "What? You don't think so?" the man asked, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

"Uh...well...um..." I looked around the room and noticed that everyone was staring at me again. Why is everyone always so friggin' fascinated with what I have to say??? There actually is one more thing that he needs...but I won't say it out loud. Yes, something that Squaresoft didn't put in the game.

"Well? He needs to look womanly if we want to see Tifa. What is it?" Aeris asked calmly. I shook my head once more. I would totally get my ass kicked for saying it...

...But at the same time, I couldn't resist.

"He needs boobs," I pointed out. Yes, yes, laugh while you can. I'm pretty sure that has crossed your mind before. You're just as bad as I am.

The room erupted in embarrassed snickers and giggles. Cloud? He looked like he wanted to punch me. "Why, I never!" the older woman at the counter stated. I couldn't stop myself. I started a horrible, horrible chain of releasing my thoughts verbally. "Do you want them, too?" I blurted out, realizing what I said a few moments later. No, I was wrong about my awkward moment being our meeting with Big Bro. THIS was my most awkward moment. I turned to look at the dresses now, avoiding the woman's furious gaze.

"Well...Cloud only got a thong from that one gay guy--"

"H-HEY!"

"...So, I'll just have to let him borrow my bra. Which means that I need a strapless dress." I hurried into the dressing room and changed into the tiny pink dress.

"Well, How do I look?" The room was silent.

"Quite appropriate attire for this side of Midgar..." the older woman muttered beneath her breath. Of course, I'm a quiet person, so it's not hard for me to hear what people say when they mutter things. I glared at her, forcefully slamming my bra down into Cloud's hands. "Put it on. Then we'll go." He looked at me as if I had asked him to do open heart surgery. "Fine...I'll help."

"Uh, no!"

"Then go."

I had just made another mistake at that moment. Unless you hang out with weird guys like I do, asking a guy to put on a bra IS pretty much telling them to do open heart surgery. A few minutes passed. Nothing. I paced around the room, looking for some shoes to wear with the dress. How long did that take? 10 minutes. Still, nothing.

"Aeris. Go help him."

I was happy to see that Aeris took the time to pick out her stuff while Cloud was doing god knows what in that dressing room. She nodded happily to me and entered the dressing room, dress in hand.

"H-hey! Get out!"

I giggled as Cloud exited the dressing room, fully clothed in his new dress. "...No peeking! I'm changing." Aeris sang from inside the dressing room.

"Ugh...What do you hold up with this thing??? Soccer balls??" Cloud poked at his chest playfully. I rolled my eyes and grabbed a bunch of paper bags, bunching them up and stuffing them into the bra. "My boobs aren't that big. Shut up."

"So? How do I look?"

I grinned and placed a hand on Aeris's shoulder. "Absolutely gorgeous, dahling. Shall we go?" Our crazy, giggly moment was interrupted by Cloud's annoyed expression.

"Ah! You're no fun!"

"Well, It's getting pretty late...Don's gonna be picking his bride soon. We need to hurry!"

* * *

"Damn! _4 _hot girls to pick from tonight! The Don is one lucky man...Come in, come in!"

I scowled at the man once he turned away. I hated how women were treated like objects here.

The door slammed shut behind us, causing me to jump. I _REALLY _didn't want to be here now.

"Hey, ladies. I'll go and let the Don know you're here. Wait here. Don't go wandering around..."

"Now's our chance. Let's find Tifa." I ran up the stairs, making sure that I didn't leave Aeris's side. I found it kinda surprising that she wasn't freaked out by this place. Maybe she was. She was probably just good at hiding it.

"Go to that staircase over there," I whispered, noticing that the two were observing the locked doors on the opposite wall.

Cloud dashed down the stairs, leaving us to run after him. By the time we had caught up with him down the stairs, he had ran past us once again and stopped, hiding his face from whoever was down there.

"...Tifa? Nice to meet you, I'm Aeris." I took a few steps back until I was next to Cloud. I didn't want to get pulled into the conversation. At this point, I wasn't able to hear a word being said. "Stop being such a wuss. I thought you came here to save her." I elbowed him in the side as hard as I could, receiving an angry glare in return.

Sure, I couldn't hear their voices, but it was easy to see that Aeris & Tifa didn't really like eachother from their body language (not that it's not already obvious...). I loved how alarmed Tifa looked as she spoke to Aeris. "What do you mean, 'Don't worry'...about what?" I mimicked sarcastically, noticing the strange look I was getting from Cloud.

"Poor Cloud, having to stand here and listen to both of us call him nothing. Right, Cloud?" Aeris asked, her voice playfully rising on those last two words. I looked over at Cloud and smirked. "Heh...busted..."

It was entertaining, watching him walk over to the girls, his face bright red.

"Cloud?! Why are you dressed like that?! And what are you doing here?!"

My laughing seized when I heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Isn't that guy coming a little too early? Maybe he's just checking the other rooms for us...

"I'll just stand over here and plug my ears," Aeris stated loudly, standing right next to me. I tilted my head to the side and looked at her for a minute, then I looked up towards the stairs once more. I had forgotten about this part, not that I really cared. I grinned as I began thinking about what was going to happen when Don Corneo picked cloud to be his 'bride'. Haa, I made this guy WAY too sexy for Don to ignore. I can't wait until we finally get out of Midgar. Cloud will never hear the last of his crossdressing day...

"We have three here, right?" Wow, I didn't zone out throughout the whole entire conversation this time!

"Aeris, no! I can't let you get involved!" I rolled my eyes and faced the door again. We were already kind of involved in this...

"Oh? So It's all right for Tifa to be in danger?"

"No, I don't want Tifa in..."

"Hurry up, already..." I sighed heavily, then looked up to see the guy from the front desk of the mansion. "Heyyyyyyyy! It's time, ladies. The Don is waiting! I tell ya...women nowadays..."

"I probably don't need to ask, but the other girl is...me, right?" The three of us nodded in agreement. "You're right. There was no need to ask."

* * *

I fidgeted nervously as we stood in a line in front of Don Corneo's desk. I already knew I wasn't going to get picked, but I was still freaked out about being here.

"Hmmm! Good, splendid! What's this??? Four girls tonight???"

I glared daggers into Don as he walked by each one of us, looking at us up and down while muttering what he liked about each one of us.

"Let's see, let's see...hmmm...Which one should I choose?" I looked down at the ground and tried not to listen to what he was saying. "Should I choose this one? ...This one? This fine girl?" I snickered a little, noticing that he had just stopped in front of Cloud. "Or...this one?" I forced myself to look at my feet again. I didn't want to look him in the eye. I'm fine as long as he pics Cloud...

He walked over to Cloud once more and tried to get a good look at his face.

"Woo-hoo, I've made up my mind! My choice for tonight is..."

Poor Cloud. He's not even a prisoner yet and he's already someone's girlfriend. I giggled under my breath at the thought.

"This gorgeous young babe!" Wait...that didn't sound familiar...

I looked up only to see Don Corneo standing in front of me (haa, that rhymed). "W-what?!" This was some kind of sick joke, wasn't it??? He was supposed to pick Cloud...or Tifa, or Aeris...not me!

"N-no! There must be a mistake!" I looked at the other three for help. Unfortunately, they thought it was pretty funny...

"Woo-hoo! I love chickies who play hard-to-get! Yeowza!"

I looked down at my necklace and noticed that Cerberus's eye was glowing the same way it had before I woke up here. Could that mean that I'm going back home??? No. I was stuck here. That should've been obvious before.

"You can have the other ones!"

"Yes, sir! Thank you sir!"

"Well then, shall we go my pretty?!" I cringed at that sentence and stood there, helpless. I looked at the others for some kind of advice, but they just looked away and nodded at eachother. Well...I guess that means i'm on my own for now...

I walked slowly as he led me back to his chambre. This had to be the worst thing to ever happen to me...

"Ahh, we're finally alone...all right, pussycat...come to daddy!"

I honestly felt like vomiting. Where the hell are Cloud and the others?? I know they won't come in until later...but still...

"You're so cute, I never get tired of looking at you. Do you...like me, too?" Oh hell no...

I clutched at my stomach as I felt the sudden urge to vomit. Honestly. I'm pretty sure you'd feel pretty sick if you were in my situation. But I guess I have to play along with this...I can't cause any commotion until the others get in here...

"Of course!" I replied playfully, sitting at the foot of the bed. "You sure do know how to make a guy feel good! Then, wh...what do you want to DO?"

Ok...I'm pretty sure this guy doesn't know that THAT'S illegal...considering i'm 16 and all...C'mon! You can act your way through this! Just like your last relationship! (haa, it's fun to bash myself.)

I flicked my bangs back and stared at him seductively. "Whatever YOU want, daddy..."

Eww...

"Oh man! I can't stand it! All right, then...Give me a kiss!! A KISS!!"

C'mon, Cloud...get in here now...

There was a long silence. I wanted this charade to end. Now.

"...All right..." I twirled my Cerberus necklace around nervously before leaning in. C'mon, guys...

I leaned in closer.

This is so fucked up...

"Juuuuuuuuuuuusssssst a minute!!"

Right on time.

"Wha...what the hell? Who goes there?!" I flipped over the bed and stood in front of the trio.

"What's goin' on?"

I stood on the trap door rug with a smug look plastered on my face. The horrified look on The Don's face was priceless as he listened to each of the AVALANCHE members's threats.

"Break the support?!" Tifa's shrill voice pulled me back into their conversation.

"You know what's going to happen?"

"The plate'll fall. Sector 7 will be destroyed," I interrupted.

"They're going to wipe out the Sector 7 Slums?!" I nodded in response. "We need to get back to sector 7...c'mon!"

"Just a second!"

Everyone stopped. Right on the trap door, too. But we won't go through the Train Graveyard. I won't let it happen.

"Cloud! Keep moving!" I whispered harshly. He signaled for me to be silent. "No! I mean it! Move!" Cloud's rebellious attitude was beginning to anger me.

"Shut up!"

"No, wait. It'll only take a second. How do you think scum like me feels when they babble on about the truth?"

Well, Cloud pretty much fucked up my plan already...so why not make it worse?

I looked behind me for something to fight with...anything. Then I saw something shining from behind the oriental screen...

I made a quick grab for it and stood up straight, flashing Don a sarcastic smile. "They don't know what the hell's going on..." I aimed the Peacemaker directly at his heart. "Close! But no cigar! Oh...and the safety's on..."

Damn me and my gun illiterate-ness...

* * *

So much for trying to change things. That'll never happen again. So, basically, I ended up falling into the sewer...face first...ewww...Not only did I fall face first into the horrible videogame toilet water, but I almost DROWNED in it. That is, until Cloud pulled me out of it. It wasn't very easy for him. Not with me freaking out and flailing the way I was. Anyways...enough of that...ahem. I feel kinda bad for him. I know I'm slowing them down. I can't fight. I can't defend myself. I'm just a naturally weak person. But at the same time, I DON'T feel bad for him. Why? Because he's pissing me off. It's not because of anything that he has done or said to me personally, but...

"Ashley, make sure Tifa's ok. I'll go get Aeris."

What did he just say?

"You're standing closer to her. Why don't _you _help her." I didn't get a reply. Not that I was expecting one. _That's _what's pissing me off. He has been friends with Tifa for _how _long??? And then he meets Aeris, and suddenly makes it his life goal to protect her. It's not that I don't like Aeris. We're pretty close, but...

She's going to die later.

"Tifa...are you alright?" Well, she was ok enough to give Aeris and Cloud an 'I swear I'll murder both of you when we get out of here' look...yikes. I don't want to get involved in this whole Tifa/Cloud/Aeris thing...

"Man! This is terrible." Damn straight this is terrible. We're going through the frickin' Train Graveyard...dead things are in graveyards...I don't like dead things...

Aeris grabbed onto the ladder next to her, trying to keep her balance. "Well, the worst is over..." Oh, how I wished that was true...But It's not. A low growling noise echoed through the air, followed by heavy footsteps. Yup. We're about to get attacked by that Tsunami monster...and I can't even fight...

"...BEHIND YOU!!" It was too late. The dark figure slammed his giant fists down into the floor, causing a giant tidal wave to knock us over. I flailed my arms and grabbed onto a nearby ladder frantically, trying not to lose my balance. The sewer water lowered to it's normal level again, making it easier for me to see what was going on. I felt useless just standing there and watching them fight. The monster slammed them against the sewer walls continuously with it's tail, leaving them bruised badly.

"H-hold on..."Aeris's voice sounded extremely weak. Her words were almost impossible to hear. I watched in awe as she bowed her head to pray. Her staff began to glow strangely at the center. I knew exactly what was going on at that moment.

She was using her Healing Wind Limit Break.

I probably sound like a complete jackass...'What's so amazing about their Limit Breaks?' Sure, they look pretty crappy on the game, but they're pretty awesome to watch in person. Aeris's prayer was finally complete. She twirled her staff around, sending the green light over to Cloud and Tifa. Their injuries disappeared instantly. It looked as if they had never been there in the first place. Moments later, the Aps brought up another Tidal Wave. That was enough damage to send Tifa and Cloud into their limit break. I didn't watch their attacks this time, however. I was now looking at the Peacemaker the exact same way that Cloud was looking at the lace thong that Mukki (or whatever his name is) gave him. I have never touched a gun in my life, and I thought that I never would. Now I _needed_ to know how to use one. The fact that there was no light down in the sewer didn't really help, either. My older brother tried to teach me how to use a gun once...how did he do that again??? After taking several minutes trying to figure out how to take the safety off (please keep in mind, I'm gun retarded), I looked up to see that Cloud had finally killed the Aps. It let out an ungodly roar, making me cover my ears to block out the horrible sound. The trio fell to their knees, exhausted and ripped up from the fight.

"It's too late...Marlene...Barret...the people of the Slums." I looked over at Tifa, who seemed to be acting...stranger than usual. I found out later that it was from the Sadness status (which was pretty freaking similar to what we call depression).

"No, we still have time, we would have heard the plate fall, considering that we're beneath Sector 7." Why the fuck was I talking so much today?! You know what?! When we get out of here, I'm gonna stare at a wall. A big, freaking white wall. Maybe that'll make me anti-social again.

Tifa looked up at the ceiling and pondered for a moment. "Yeah...you're right! We still have time." I nodded and looked over to the right. Nice. A group of Ceasar was coming towards us, which meant that I could use my new gun to fight them.

Or not.

You see, when an idiotic person like me is given a gun, the bad guys, monsters...whatever, aren't the only ones in danger. The allies are as well. I held up the gun confidently...got ready to fire...aaaand...BLAM. I dropped the gun and fell to the floor. I wasn't holding onto it correctly...yeah...I watched fearfully as the bullet ricochet off from every surface in the room, missing the target(s) by...well...several yards. Cloud shook his head and struck down all three of our attackers instantly.

"...Maybe...you should hold onto the inventory instead..." I lowered my head in embarrassment and took the bag from Cloud's hands.

This was going to be a looooonnnnnnng journey...

* * *

What did you guys think of this chapter? Well...you know what to do! REVIEW!!

I wanted to get this chapter out yesterday...but my Nazi laptop spazzed out and shut off. rawr. HOPEFULLY I can post 2 chapters on here today...without this thing freaking out...

Off to drink LOTS OF COFFEE and write the next chapter!!!


	4. Caught!

**Disclaimer: blahhzzzz...this gets annoying...lookit the friggin' ch. 1 disclaimer!!! **

**now then...TADA!!! RANDOMNESS!!!**

**Devil-Speaker - Glad to see you're still reading:D I agree. Aeris is a Mary Sue. I'm trying not to make my OC Mary Sue-ish...although i'm probably doing a crappy job at it...lol. I'm not very familiar with the Mary Sue ways (unless they go to extremes, i.e. Aeris) Lmao at the OC/Cloud comment! XD I'm trying not to pair my OC up with anyone. But, It might happen. Who knows what I'm gonna do later in the story? I might even just kill her off. :P (I'm not saying that'll happen...but...lol)**

**Lost MP - Thanks!! XD I hate it when someone actually writes a good "OC gets sucked into game" fic and they never update it again after the first few chapters...I agree, there are some good ones on here. :P**

**Y'know what?? Screw my "Don't flame me" rule. I'm happy to say that I got my first flame. woo. **

**Now...ONTO THE STORY!!!!**

**

* * *

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I watched as Cloud and the others went ahead towards the train graveyard. There was absolutely NO WAY that I was going to climb those ladders in this dress. I ducked behind a matress and quickly changed into my skinny jeans and green, hooded t-shirt, looking around every other second to make sure there were no monsters around. "Now...to the Train Graveyard..." I muttered. Little did I know that there was a group of Sahagin on the other side of the matress...and Cloud wasn't there to get me out of trouble.

"Oh, shit.." I looked around for some kind of escape. Nothing.

BLAM!

Just as I had turned around to face the frog-like monsters, I was blasted with it's water gun attack and thrown to the floor. I watched helplessly as the inventory bag flew to the other side of the room, with the Peacemaker inside. This is pathetic...I'm going to die by getting attacked by _water_! What the hell?! I'm better than that! I rolled out of the way just in time. My eyes widened as I stared at the trident sticking out of the ground, which was only a few inches away from me. My heart began beating faster. It felt as if it would beat itself out of my chest...

And then I noticed that the eye of my Cerberus necklace was glowing again. Why the hell did it keep doing that??? I shook the thought from my mind and made a mad dash for the inventory satchel. I was glad to see that the Peacemaker was at the very top of the pile inside the bag when I opened it.

"Now...don't freak out and drop it this time..." Too slow. The gun was struck out of my hand by one of the monsters. Now I was pissed...

I grabbed onto the monster's trident. Bad idea. It easily slung me across the room and into the cement wall. This totally sucked...I wanted to just give up and let them kill me...

And then there was Cloud, whipping out his sword and acting heroic, as usual.

"You're too slow," he scoffed, wiping the oozing blood off from his sword after cutting through all three Sahagin. "I didn't need your help."

"Then why didn't you kill them yourself?" I just love how you're trying to bring down a teenage girl...

"Does it matter? We need to get to Sector 7 before they destroy it completely." That was probably the first time I saw Cloud smile, or smirk sarcastically since i've been with them.

Luckily (well, for me), there weren't anymore monsters around to give us trouble. Unfortunately, Cloud kept giving me trouble. Apparently he thought that making loud monstrous noises and freaking me out was pretty entertaining. He finally stopped when we reached the hole/vent in the ground. "You wanna jump down first?" What kind of retarded question is that? I wasn't going to jump down there! It was completely pitch black!

"Uh...no."

Cloud didn't seem happy about my reply. "Then you can stay here. I'm going." I looked at him with my famous 'what the fuck?!' face.

"The Sector 7 Slums are in danger. I don't have time to argue with you about this." Before I could reply, let alone even process what he just said, Cloud grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down with him. We reached the bottom not even _half _of a second later. "See, it wasn't as bad as you thought." Oh, don't even start...

"See, it wasn't as bad as you thought," I mocked, watching the spiky headed figure as he walked away.

* * *

An eerie, wailing wind blew throughout the Train Graveyard, making it seem more melancholic than it really was. "How do we get through it?" I asked softly, peering around at the massive wreckage of rusty metal. Cloud shook his head and stood in front of us. "Aeris. I got you mixed up in all of this..." Excuse me? We're stuck here in this place with absolutely no easy way out, and all you can think of is _Aeris_?

"Don't tell me to go home."

Please, shut up.

"Let's see..." Tifa began, pulling Cloud and Aeris out of their little soap opera moment, "If we can just get past the trains that are lit up, we should be able to get out of here." Tifa was officially my hero. For now. I stared nervously at the ladder to my left. It wasn't really a ladder, actually...just parts from an old railroad track. It didn't look safe. Quite a few of the boards were missing, and the ones that weren't had split in half. I guess I can't really complain too much, though. That's the only way out of this area.

_CRACK!_

I clenched my teeth and swore under my breath as we made our way up the side of the car. I knew one of these boards would break soon...

_SNAP!_

Yup. I was right. Not only right, but thankful that it wasn't the board that I was standing on. It was Cloud's. I laughed at the sound of him slamming against the side of the train. "Need help?" I smirked and extended my hand out to him, not expecting him to grab on. Do you remember when Reno was standing in Cloud's room in Advent Children, and he said 'You know, you're pretty heavy'? Well, he wasn't lying. Thankfully, Tifa and Aeris were there to help before he pulled both of us down. I stood back and watched as the two girls repeatedly asked if he was fine and glared at eachother when the other one wasn't looking.

You know, things seemed so much easier in the game. Sure, we weren't running into random battles every 5 seconds (of course, there weren't any monsters around the Train Graveyard), but the locations seemed to stretch on forever. We finally managed to escape from the graveyard about 47 minutes later.

"We made it! The pillar's still standing!" Tifa exclaimed excitedly. Sure, it's still standing, but how are we supposed to get up there with all these people blocking the gate?? You guys are gonna kill me for making all of these game comparisons...but...

Everyone from the Sector 7 Slums seemed to be watching the pillar nervously. There were a lot more people crammed into that small area than I thought. I had to grab onto Cloud's sword just to keep the massive amount of people from knocking me over and separating me from the group. A loud, crackling noise shot through the air, sending me flying back into a group of panicking people.

"Wait! You hear something...above us?" It was almost impossible to hear Cloud's words over all of the screaming and explosions. The crowd seemed to push up against the gate moments after he said that. I forced myself to look up, and then I saw Wedge falling from the very top of the building. "Move!! Can't you see he's hurt?!" I shouted, forcefully pushing through the sea of people.

"Wedge!! You alright?!"

I stopped a few feet away from them and let a few people push past me. I wasn't sure about what I should do. The sad expressions on Cloud and Tifa's faces made me feel sick.

"I'm going up! Aeris! You look after wedge." The saddened expression on his face was replaced with fury. "Ashley!" I twitched slightly at the anger in his voice, but managed to look him in the eye. "You stay with Aeris." I nodded. I really wouldn't have been much help, anyways.

"Aeris, do me a favor. I have a bar called '7th Heaven' in this neighborhood. There's a little girl named Marlene there..."

"Don't worry. I'll put her somewhere safe."

Aeris smiled weakly at me and led me over to Wedge. "Just let me check on him, first..." She said slowly. Aeris stood back up moments later and folded her hands. I glanced at her questioningly. "He has returned to the planet..." she whispered, barely opening her eyes.

"You're worried about Cloud." No shit, Sherlock. That was a stupid thing for me to say. She nodded and took one last look at the pillar. "You up for running?" What is this, gym class? She giggled at the twisted expression on my face. "We need to hurry and get Marlene." Well, that's a good enough reason to run for me. I pulled off my shoes, knowing that they'd fly off or cause me to stumble if I tried to run while wearing them. "Ready? Go!" Yes, the whole 'save Marlene' thing turned into a race. I laughed psychotically as I sped past her. Of course, innocent, sweet Aeris had a little trick up her sleeve.

CRACK!

"Wha?" I slowed down a bit and looked at the ground. It must have been my imagination...

_CRACK!_

"AHH! It's COLD!!!!" Yes, the sweet, innocent flower girl had cast an ice spell. ON MY FEET. "That's not fair!" I whined. "Awww, you're no fun." A red ring encircled my feet, slowly melting away the ice. "Thanks, Aer...damnit." I groaned as I watched her speed off into the 7th Heaven Bar. "Ohhhh! I'll get my revenge...as soon as this ice melts..."

Unfortunately, the ice didn't melt as quick as it should have. I can thank Aeris for that. She cast a really weak fire spell. A really, really, REALLY weak fire spell. "UHHHH...It hurts soooooooooooOOOOOOOoooooooooo baaaaaad!" My feet were hurting for quite a few reasons. One reason was because I had stepped on a bunch of sharp rocks when I was running down the hill. Another reason is because Aeris's fire spell had completely melted the ice off from the bottom of my feet (but I was pretty much still stuck to the ground), so the fire spell was pretty much burning the skin to death.

"Hey! We're heading back to my house!" Aeris shouted as she ran towards me, Marlene following closely behind her. "You win! You win! Make the ice go away!" Aeris stared at me blankly. PLEASE don't tell me that she forgot about the ice spell...

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" She held out her hand as it began to glow the same color of red as the fire ring around my feet. "Marlene will be safe if I leave her with mom." I nodded and stood up as the ice completely melted away. "The trains are definitely not working...so we'll have to go through Sector 6 to get to my house. Is that okay with you?" I shuddered with disgust at the mention of Sector 6, but Aeris was right. That was the only way to get back there.

* * *

I literally had to drag Aeris away from the pillar when we passed it. I'm worried about Cloud, too, but geez. "So...tell me a little bit about Cloud, Marlene." Oh, please...don't start, Aeris. I plugged my ears and forced myself to think of something...anything unrelated to Cloud. Let's see...Chocobos! No. Cloud's hair resembles a chocobo. Lightning Materia! ...UGH! No! I always had that equipped to Cloud. Damn...it's no use. I really don't like Cloud. This whole Tifa vs. Aeris thing is just screwing with my mind. So don't get any ideas. 'Kay?

"Ashley?"

"I'M NOT OBSESSED!"

Silence. The #1 killer in America. Next to drunk gaming, of course.

"Not...obsessed?" Aeris and Marlene gave me puzzled looks. I had to think of something quick. "Uhh...yeah...Not Obsessed...It's..uh...that song with the...uh...words..." Brilliant. Way to go, dumbass. After recovering from my moment of stupidity, I realized that we had finally reached the Sector 5 Slums. Wait...Aeris gets caught here, doesn't she?

My thoughts were broken by the sound of a whirling hellicopter. Of course. Tseng.

"Run!!"

"Wha--" Aeris latched onto my wrist and dragged us throughout the Sector 5 Slums, trying to lose Tseng. Even though the ground was much more even here in Sector 5, it was practically impossible to run there, due to all of the garbage lying around and the narrow walkways.

"Over here! Trust me!"

Trust you??? You just led me down a friggin' alleyway! Everyone knows what happens during a chase when someone goes down an alleyway!

"Well, well. I've finally caught up with you, Ancient."

* * *

Ughhh...sorry about the late update, guys. School's about to start up, so I've been forced to go out and buy crap. I won't be able to do a daily update (like when I first started this story), but i'll still update it frequently. It's annoying when people start fanfics and never update again after the first few chapters.

Oh, a few of you may be wondering "What the fuck does the summary have to do with the story?!" well...you'll find out soon. very soon. yup, yup.

And my little "OC obsessed with Cloud" moment was for Devil-Speaker. Because you brought that up. evil, evil person. lol.


	5. To Shinra Headquarters!

**Disclaimer: blah...so boring...I own nothing. NOTHING, PEOPLE!!! Except for myself. And a few other characters in this chapter. (If I decide to type that far)**

**on another note...I am SOOOOO freaking sorry for the delayed update .**

**I feel like a hypocrite now. (**

**A couple of days after posting ch.4, my laptop finally stopped working, so I was pretty much computer-less for a month. But that didn't stop me from at least writing down a little bit of the story down on paper.**

**There were a few things I noticed after my computer stopped working.**

**1. my writing kinda sucks. how are you not falling asleep at the computer while reading it?? That's something I'll be working on from now on in the chapters.**

**2. The characters seem to be OOC (including myself). That will be worked on, too.**

**3. I noticed the whole 'hating Aeris' thing ticked a few people off. Don't get too upset about it ('cause there's gonna be a big change soon ;P)**

**So...now that I've bored you to death with all of that...here's ch.5!!**

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I took a few steps back as my eyes darted around the alleyway. There had to be an exit somewhere. "Ashley, does Cloud have any materia left in the bag?" I looked at her for a moment in confusion. How was I supposed to know if Cloud had any materia in his inventory bag?

I let out a little yelp as I felt something tugging at my arm. I looked down and noticed Marlene going through the bag. "Oh, crap! I still have it!" I muttered.

Thank you, captain obvious.

"Will these work?" Marlene pulled out two different Materia and held them up to Aeris. She nodded in response and held them to her side, concealing them from Tseng's sight. "Can you do something to distract them?"

Me? Distract them?? What the hell am I supposed to do?! There WAS nothing I could do. Unless I used my gun, or any materia I could find. Hell...That would be impossible for me. If I can't use a gun, I sure as hell can't use Materia.

"If you take one more step near them, I'll blow your fucking brains out."

Unfortunately, my mind had gone on autopilot again, and I had just found myself only inches away from Tseng and his SOLDIERs. I wasn't just standing there, though. I was aiming my gun at them.

"My, my...aren't we brave? Do you really think you can take out 3 SOLDIERs _and_ a Turk?" I glared at Tseng, causing the smirk on his face to grow bigger. "Ashley! Stand back!" Just as I had turned around to look at Aeris, a SOLDIER slammed his gun into the side of my head, knocking me backwards. A giant ring of fire appeared around the SOLDIERs & Tseng the moment I had hit the ground. I quickly stood up and dashed over towards Aeris & Marlene. I had no idea what Aeris was thinking. There was no way to get out of the alleyway with that giant fire ring blocking the only exit. Aeris tilted her head down and prayed over the other Materia. Seconds later, a green glow surrounded the back wall, and it disappeared. "Transform Materia?"

Aeris nodded at me and took Marlene's hand. "We need to hurry up and get to my house before the spell wears off.

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"OH SNAP!" Marlene giggled to herself as I fell to the ground swiftly. Apparently, I had tripped over an unopened can of Shinra Amino-D when I was running. "Ugh! That shit's all over my pants!" I whined, standing up and staring at the newly smashed soda can. "We're almost there." Aeris smiled.

"My...that wasn't very smart." I turned around and found myself face to face with Tseng. "We could've done this the easy way." The Shinra SOLDIERs dashed past me quickly and snatched Aeris & Marlene. "Wait!' Aeris yelled. "I'll go with you. Just let Marlene go."

Thank god. Things are going the way they're supposed to again.

"I have no problem doing that. But she must hand over the White Materia first."

Or not.

I stared at Tseng in confusion. What did he mean by 'White Materia'? "I-I don't have it." I said softly.

"Fine, then. I guess we'll just take this little girl back as a test subject." I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. "I really don't have it!"

"You're lying. You've been wearing it around your neck the whole time." I looked down at the necklace around my neck. The 'eye' was glowing dimly. "Shinra's known to lie. You'll just take both." I honestly didn't know what to do. Hell, Tseng's much smarter than me. He'll end up taking the Materia from me somehow. I placed my hands on my hips and stared at the ground nervously. I felt something cold on the side of my hand. "The Peacemaker..." I muttered to myself. I smirked at the ground and pulled the necklace off from me. The SOLDIER holding Marlene brought her over to Tseng. "Well?"

"I-I have no choice but to trust you." I replied sadly. Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion, like a car wreck. I handed the necklace to him, I whipped out the gun, I ALMOST shot him in the head, he knocked the gun out of my hand, I heard another gunshot, and everything went black.

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A sharp pain shot through my left arm. I screamed out in pain, raising myself up slightly. "Oh, be quiet, will you?! People are sleeping!" I opened my eyes slightly and noticed that I was no longer outside. "Now, now. Be nice to her, Heather. She just got shot. She's going to be in a lot of pain with that bullet still stuck inside her shoulder."

What was stuck in my arm?! I raised myself up again in panic. The flaring pain in my arm let me know that that was a bad decision. "Don't move, we need to get that out."

"Where's Marlene?" There was a long silence. "Who's that?"

"The little girl that was with me!" I replied. I didn't mean to sound _that_ angry. "When we found you, there was no one else around." So, they got away with Marlene _and _the White Materia. And it's all my fault, too. I opened my eyes completely and saw a couple of familiar faces. The woman going through the first aid kit was the woman from the pipe. And the other woman was the bitch from the train. "For the love of Holy, why did we have to bring her back to _my_ house?" said the bitch. The other woman cleared her throat as she pulled out a few bandages. "Because, Heather. I live in Sector 8." The other woman walked over to me with the first aid kit. "Now, let's see how bad the wound is..." She held onto my arm lightly, causing a horrible stinging sensation to go through it. "Itsokayyoudon'thavetolookatit!!" I said quickly. "Don't be silly! If we don't do something about it, it'll get infected!" She continued to observe the wound. "Wow...it's in there pretty deep... I'm not sure if I can get it out." I let out a sigh of relief. "You look like the kind of girl that uses Materia a lot." Umm...is she on drugs?? I looked at her and tilted my head to the side. " I'm pretty sure that a good Cure spell will fix your arm up. Let me atleast bandage it up for now until you get some Restore Materia. I looked out of the window to my left and saw the Shinra buiding towering over the slums. I had to get there somehow. BEFORE Cloud and the others. If Barett found out that Marlene got kidnapped because of me, he'd kill me. And he'd have no problem doing that, since he's only seen me once. "...Is there any way to get up to the Shinra Building?"

"You can by train." I cringed at that last word. "Is there...any other way?" I asked softly. She shook her head as she finished bandaging my arm. Could things get any worse? That's just what I need. For the tracks to get screwed up in the explosion while I try to get to the Shinra building. I guess I had to. I had no other choice. "Can you take me to the train station?"

"Absolutely not! Stay here and rest for a few days." The woman known as Heather glared at the woman, and so did I. I didn't have 'a few days'. I wasn't going to be left in Midgar. I _needed_ to get to the Headquarters.

"Well, I believe that we've had enough excitement for one day. You get some rest." I watched as they slowly exited the room, shutting the door behind them. "Damn. That's balls." I muttered, leaning back on the pillows.

-----

I sat there for 30 minutes, waiting for everyone to fall asleep downstairs. Luckily, they all drank so much that they passed out. Thank god, I can leave now.

Unfortunately, a few of them passed out in front of the door, leaving me no choice but to climb out of the window. I opened it and stood there for a while. I was terrified of heights, and I was about to jump out of a window on the second floor. there was nothing at the bottom to break my fall, and there was no ledge for me to stand on outside. "Well, here I go..." I whispered shakily. I jumped out and landed on my feet, and then I ended up falling backwards. "Oh, crap!' I pulled myself off from the ground and dashed towards the entrance to Sector 5. I had no idea where I was going. I didn't even know where the train station was. The only one close to here is Sector 7, and they're not letting _anyone_ on.

"Hell, just go with it!!" I dashed through Sector 6, nearly falling into a few cracks in the ground. Instead of walking all over the pipes like Cloud, I forced myself to jump from ledge to ledge. "Hell, I don't have time for you!" I shouted, noticing that a Hell House was chasing me. I ran as fast as I could to the Sector 6 playground, knowing that the monster wouldn't be able to get through there.

I stopped in front of the swing and tried to catch my breath. I mentally cursed myself for stopping to take a break. Sector 7 was_ right there_, and I stopped to take a damn break! "Keep moving, fatass!" I yelled at myself, sprinting over to the metal door. "Open! Open! Open!" I kicked it out of anger as it slowly slid open. "C'mon, the train's right there!!"

I stopped in front of the door, gasping for air. "Open...the...door...please." The man looked at me questionably. "I'm sorry, miss. It's too dangerous. We're not letting anyone on the--"

"DON'T MAKE ME GET ALL NAZI ON YOUR ASS!" He looked as if he had just seen Cloud dressed in drag. "O-okay, just calm down. I'll see what I can do." A few other people hoping to get on the train walked up onto the platform.

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I was starting to regret getting on the train in the first place. I was going to die on the train. I knew I was. And so were the people from Sector 7 that chose to go to the Shinra Headquarters, too. "_Attention all passengers. We will be reaching the Shinra Headquarters in 5 minutes_. _Please prepare to exit from the train._" I twisted my hair nervously, not sure if we'd even be alive within the next 5 minutes. I slouched down into the seat and rested my knees on the seat in front of me. "Excuse me, miss. Could you please not do that?" The man in front of me asked. I quickly sat up straight and looked down. "Sorry..." I muttered. I placed my right hand over the gunshot wound and began thinking about the plate support in Sector 7. I had expected it to collapse by now. "What's that noise?!" A woman sitting a few rows behind me began panicking, which, of course, sent everyone else into a panic. At first, I thought she was just hearing things. I thought that she was just shaken up from the threat of Sector 7 being destroyed. Boy, was I wrong. A loud exploding noise rippled through the air in the direction of Sector 7. "The tracks are breaking!!!"

Dear god, don't tell me that. As much as I didn't want to believe her, she was telling the truth. The impact from the explosion was ripping apart the train tracks. I squeezed the wound on my arm nervously, causing it to gush out blood. "_A-attention all passengers! We're quickly approaching the Shinra Headquarters! Please prepare to depart from the train quickly!_" I quickly stood up, which caused me to fall back into the seat. I was so nervous that it was hard for me to stand up. "Everyone get to the front of the train! Quick!" I sank down into my seat pathetically as everyone violently made their way to the front, knocking several people over in the process. I waited until I was the only one left in the train car to stand up. I shook violently as I held onto the seat in front of me. "C'mon...you have to run again..." I quickly stumbled through the train, making my way to the front as quick as possible. I glanced out of the window and noticed that we were now in front of the massive building. The train quickly came to a stop, throwing me backwards and toward the very back of the train. The tracks beneath the car I was in cracked loudly. My left arm slammed into the wall, causing me to go weak for a moment. It was all over. I knew It. I was going to die in this train.

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**Well, I think I'll end Chapter 5 right there. P**

**Once again, I'm sorry for my long absence.**

**Hopefully this chapter didn't suck too bad. It's nothing like the Chapter 5 that I wrote down.**

**Let me know what you think about it!**


	6. Inside Headquarters pt 1

**Disclaimer: wow...are these things really necessary? I own nothing, people. Not Squaresoft, Final Fantasy VII, nothing. Just my OC and a couple of other characters in this chapter.**

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I leaned against the back wall of the train pathetically, holding my right hand over the wound on my left arm (which was bleeding like fucking crazy, since I slammed my arm into the doorknob). The train slowly rolled backwards and stopped at the edge of what was left of the tracks. I _knew _that this wasn't going to end well.

"I don't care what happens to the damn thing! I'm not leaving my house!" I raised my head slightly and glanced at the door ahead of me. Were there still people stuck on the train? _Not _including the homeless dude? Hell, I didn't care. I had to get out of there somehow. I grabbed onto the seats for support as I made my way to the door on the other side of the room. "Fine! If you want to sit here and die in this hellhole, go ahead! Just let me through here so I can see if anyone else is still back there!" I glanced at the shadows beneath the door, or at least tried to. It was completely dark, so the homeless dude was most likely sitting in front of it.

"Move out of the way, already!" The train shook violently, knocking me to the ground immediately. Shortly after, the lights flickered a couple of times, then completely shut off. Amazing. I'm not gonna die in just a regular old train. I'm gonna die in a very dark train. A loud _thud_ came from the other side of the door. I suppose the guy on the other side fell into it. "Sonova_bitch_!" Yeah. I was totally right. I stood up slowly and stared at the doorknob (well, at least tried to, since it was so dark) as it began to jiggle, then turn. The sound of footsteps echoed through the train car. "Anyone back here?" _Bam_. Whoever had walked into the room ran right into me, nearly sending me into a panic attack. "You're WAAY too close!" I blurted out nervously, shoving the person away from me a little too forcefully. That's one thing that I _really really really_ hated. Physical contact. I was known to spaz out completely if someone touched me. "Oh, sorry 'bout that." I shook my head in response, even though they couldn't see me. The room was completely lit up seconds later by some materia the guy was holding. "Fire Materia fucking rocks, huh?" He asked, smirking while holding the materia close to his face. The guy was actually pretty attractive. Not that I was purposely checking him out or anything....

He looked somewhat like Cloud, only with dark, shoulder length hair. Wait a second...Cloud and attractive don't belong in the same thought...."Damn you, Cloud!" I blurted out angrily. The guy arched an eyebrow and lowered the materia. "Uhhm...I'm...Jayden?" I shook my head violently and looked down. "I-I'm sorry...I wasn't talking about you. You see..." I raised my head to look him in the eyes and give him my cheesiest smile. "I talk to myself out loud sometimes...so...yeah." Jayden chuckled and shook his head in reply. He probably thought I was a freak after that. Not that I'm _not_ a freak.

The train shook violently again, nearly knocking me to the ground once more. "We need to get out of here before this thing collapses!" I nodded and followed him out of the room. "So.....where are you going? Sector 5? Sector 8?" I shook my head as he yanked open another door and dashed through. "Shinra...Headquarters...." I replied, trying to keep up with him. "Ahh...pretty brave...for a _girl_," He laughed. I glared at him as he slowed to a stop to open the last door. What did he mean by _girl??? _"I'm going inside as well. Maybe we can help each other." Ummm....how 'bout no, asshole? "Sure. Why not?" I replied kindly. Jayden smirked and yanked the door open.

Everyone on the train seemed to be crouded around the door. "What's going on?" Jayden asked one of the men. "Those Shinra assholes have this train surrounded by armed guards."

"Dammit." Jayden looked down at the ground momentarily, lost in thought. "I have an idea. Gather up a few men and have them stand next to me in front of the door. Make everyone else stand back." Everything seemed to turn chaotic after that. The tracks were no longer supporting the train, so the train of course started sliding backwards, down into the darkness. Someone freaked out and yanked the door open before Jayden gave the signal, so the guards immediately opened fire and killed everyone standing in front of the door (or so I thought). And last but not least, everyone panicked and stampeded out of the train, viciously attacking the guards outside once they got out. "Let's get out of here! Now!" Jayden yelled, rising up from a pile of bodies near the door while clutching some type of materia in his right hand. He grabbed onto my wrist and sprinted out of the train with me, right before the train disappeared into the remains of Sector 7. "That could've been us." Jayden muttered shakily. "Don't you mean _you_?" I asked, giving him an evil smirk. He looked at me with a hurt and confused expression. "Oh, I would've escaped safely." I continued, turning towards the Shinra Headquarters. "Feh. Whatever. You'd probably still be in the very back of the train, hiding in the corner like the coward you are." I glared and shoved him playfully. Everyone seemed to disappear once we got off the train. No Shinra guards, no Slum residents, no one. Just the bodies of those who were killed remained in the area. Jayden walked over to the corpse of an executive and dug around in the pocket of it's blazer. "There. Now we can just walk through the entrance and..." I shook my head quickly, drowning out everything that he was saying. "Oh, no. I'm not just walking through the front entrance. I'll find some other way to get inside. You can go ahead and get caught by those guards if you want." He shrugged and turned to walk away. "Fine. Suit yourself. First one to kill President Shinra wins." I watched as his figure slowly disappeared into the building.

Hell. Neither one of us will get to President Shinra before he dies.

I circled the building slowly, searching for the abandoned staircase that I always used while playing (seriously, what's the fun in barging right into the front entrance???). After a while, I finally got sick of searching and decided to sit on the ground for a while. I looked up at the building and stuck my tongue out. How the hell was I supposed to get in there, now? Was that staircase just in the game? And I let Jayden go on without me...

I glanced down at the wound on my arm and poked it. "Ewww...so gross!" I whined, noticing the large amount of blood dried to the sleeve of my shirt. "Bah...look for the staircase before you VO-mit," I sang to myself as I stood up. I began walking once more, and I finally reached the very back of the Shinra building (which took for-EVER!!). The sun was begining to rise, so that made searching much easier. I was finally able to find a dark hallway leading into the massive building. "Staircase?!" I blurted out excitedly, peering inside. Actually, I didn't really know whether to be excited or scared. Sure, I had been searching for an alternative entrance. But...well....I was kinda scared of the dark. And the corridor seemed pretty dark. No, _very _dark. I shuddered as I made my way through the darkness. Atleast Jayden didn't find me in there. If he had ran to me in there, I probably would have pissed myself and beat the hell out of him. "Light!" I squealed cheerfully, noticing the familiar illuminated doorway. I jolted through the doorway and looked behind me to make sure that no one was following me (yeah, I get _that _freaked out by the dark. Go ahead and laugh). I knew I had a shitload of walking to do, but I didn't really realize how much until I looked up at the seemingly neverending staircase. Stairs are gonna seem like my worst enemy after this...but what the hell. I'll do it for Marlene. _Let's see....floor 1......floor 2.....floor 3_.......Sad. Isn't it? When you're so bored that you feel like you have to count the floors that you've reached so far? _floor 7....floor 8.....floor 9.....floor 10....._I stopped at floor 10. My vision was begining to get blurry. "Damn contacts..." I muttered, massaging my eyelids furiously. "Ahh, fuck it. Keep running, dumbass."

----------------------------------------------------

"47..........48............49.............5---SHIT!!!!!" I tripped over a step and nearly fell onto the stairs. "AGGGHHHH!!!" Out of anger, I slammed my fist into the ground. Of course, that wasn't very smart, considering that the stairs were made out of metal. "Oh....my.....god.......WHAT THE FUCK?!?!" I whined, rubbing my newly injured hand. You know, that's completely amazing. Amazing how I always managed to hurt myself. It was never on purpose, though. I was just that...ditzy. I guess that came with the blonde hair.

I looked up once more to see how much farther I had to go. Not that I was gonna get up anytime soon, though. I was too weak to stand. Luckily, I didn't have far to go. The door leading inside was only a couple of floors away. I could tell from the voices coming from there. There was some bad news that went along with the good news (of course). The lights looked as if they would go off at any minute. They had been flickering since I entered the room.

I finally made up my mind to go ahead and get to the 59th floor (even though it hurt to stand up, between running up all of those stairs and falling on them...really hard). _Floor 57............Floor 58........BZZZZZTT!!! _Of course. The lights had literally exploded, leaving me in the dark to freak out and scream. I was shaking so bad that I had to hold onto the railing to make sure that I wouldn't fall again. "Keep going...there's no rats in here.....there's no rats in here.....wait...._RATS?!_" My overactive imagination had really done it this time. The thought of getting attacked by rats had scared me so much that I had sprinted as fast as I could up to the next floor.

SANCTUARY!!! I mentally shouted, casually walking through the door. I was immediately greeted by the blinding lights and guards that were scattered randomly around the room. I had absolutely no Idea what I was gonna do after that. I didn't have a cardkey to access the 60th floor. Plus, the 59th floor was covered with guards. I was screwed. Completely. What was I gonna do? Walk up to them and ask for a cardkey? How stupid.

Seconds later, I found myself standing in front of one of the elevator guards, smiling weakly. Dammit. I hate it when I tell myself I'm not gonna do something 'cause it's stupid. "Yeah? Whaddya want?" I sighed and gave him my fakest smile. "I'd like to get up to the 67th floor, please." Yes. I was being totally serious. BUT, I had a plan.

The guard chuckled and gave me a dirty look. "And who the hell do you think you are???" I smirked and tilted my head. "Elizabeth Nanale. To the 67th floor, _please_." The guard looked nervous. "Y-yes ma'am. Please, get in." I walked into the elevator and smirked as he entered as well. For those of you who are confused as to what just happened, let me explain. When Jayden found the Shinra executive laying on the ground, he dug around in his pockets to search for a cardkey to get into the areas above the 60th floor. While doing that, the executive's wallet fell out, revealing his ID, family photos, etc. Apparently, he was a very successful spy for the Shinra Corporation. His name was Donovan Nanale. In one of the pictures in his wallet, I noticed a young, blonde girl about my age standing between Mr. Nanale, and someone else (whose face was ripped off from the photo for some reason). I flipped the photo over and found the girl's name on the very back. 'Elizabeth Nanale'. At the time, that stuff was completely useless to me...but now....his daughter's identity was helping me sneak into the Shinra Headquarters. "E-excuse me, ma'am. My cardkey will only let us reach the 64th floor. Is that alright for now? I'm sure you can borrow another employee's cardkey that can reach the 67th floor." I nodded kindly and stepped through the elevator door, leaving the guard behind.

------------------------------

**Oh. My. God.**

**I am soooooooOOOOOOOoooooo sorry, you guys. I just realized that I haven't updated this thing in like...a year. This chapter was supposed to be submitted December of last year, but I never finished it (and still haven't. Can't figure out what I did with that paper).**

**There was more to chapter 6 to this...I promise. I even wrote chapter 7 and 8, but that disappeared as well. =/**

**Since I have nothing better to do today, I'll look for those papers. If I don't find 'em, I'll just redo this chapter and so forth.**

**On a random note: Senior year is a pain in the ass. x[**


	7. Inside Headquarters pt 2

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything....'cept my OCs.**

**Note to my readers (if I still have any ;o) : Wow....I feel like I apologize in every chapter I write. This chapter should have been posted at least a year ago (it is now 12/11/09 as I write this). 2009 has been a crazy year for me. I turned 18 back in January and just got horribly depressed. A couple of months later, a cousin of mine was killed, which didn't make things any easier for me. I graduated HS and got into Beauty School shortly after, and between all of the crazy horrible things that have been happening, I have been working on this story. I just haven't been able to post the chapters because I haven't had internet access since March. Soooo....now that I have bored you to death with my whining....on with the story. (I have a feeling this won't be posted until late of '10 or even '11).**

**New note (1/8/10): hellooo there to the people that still read this storyyy....recently I was able to get my laptop to rise from the dead after 2 years, and ta-da! I can kinda steal a wireless signal from my neighbors to post the chapters. . **

**Sooo....kinda expect to see more chapters....just kinda...not all the way.....**

**But before I start the story, I'm gonna respond to the reviews.**

Lyndotia: Omggg....thank you for all of the reviews, thanks for reading my fic, and the constructive criticism. xD

**- The Tseng thing definitely makes sense now. Thank god. Or Jenova. Or Holy.  
- Glad to hear that the ADD brain comments aren't driving people insane. xD holy crapola, someone is similar to me randomness-wise. :o yay!**

**- Knowing me, if I had held a gun in my hands when I was 16, I probably would have shot myself with it. On accident, of course. .  
That reminds me...I haven't had my coffee this morning. D=  
Oh well. I'll save it for when I start writing on this chapter.  
- It's like their reading your mind and their trying to make you blurt out the truth! D=  
D'awww....now I'm paranoid. . . ._.**

**- Wow...that must really suck. =o I would so fail hardcore in ''real" college.**

**Lonelyassassin: Thanks for reading! =D glad you like it. I'll try to update whenever I can.**

* * *

The door made an annoying 'DING!' noise as it finally reached its destination. I let out a sigh as the doors slid open, stepping out quickly so I wouldn't have to listen to the Shinra Soldier's annoying rambling anymore. There was no sign indicating which floor I was on like the other ones, but there was really no need for one when my nose was attacked by the horrible smell of sweat and other BO. I gagged and turned to jump back into the elevator, but the doors had just shut, sending the Soldier to one of the upper levels.

"Ah, fuck your couch," I muttered angrily, kicking the Elevator door with a loud THUD. I began to panick shortly after, hearing people walking towards me to investigate the noise. Without thinking, I rolled behind a trash can to hide, accidentally landing on my injured arm. I bit down on my tongue to keep myself from making noise and glanced towards the Office Gym door.

Elena emerged from the room along with an equally short brunette, chatting away happily.

"Can you believe it? I get to work with Tseng now!"

The brunette sighed and wiped the sweat from her face with the towel draped over her shoulders. "Don't get too excited, sweetheart. 1.) You're working _for_ him. Not with him. 2.) The only reason why you're with the turks is because that idiot Reno messed up and hurt himself, and you're the only one here qualified to be a Turk. Well, other than me."

Elena made a disgusted face as her friend turned down the corridor leading to the locker room. I stood up carefully once they were inside and began walking towards the door. Might as well score some new clothes while I was there. Luckily, Elena and her friend were the only ones inside. I smiled as Elena put her keycard in her locker, forgetting to lock it as she turned to say something to her friend. I waited until they cleared the locker room before raiding the unlocked locker. She had slid the keycard beneath a pile of clothes that no doubt belonged to her other friend. I pulled the black tanktop from the pile and looked at the note pinned to it.

'PROPERTY OF SHARON. TOUCH MY STUFF AND DIE.'

I grinned and yanked out the ripped up blue jeans and knee high motorcycle boots, holding them up to me. After finding a ripped piece of paper and a pen, I thought i'd leave my victim a nice little note. I smiled as the pen moved across the paper feverishly, glancing at it one last time before taping it to the back of the locker.

'I TOOK YOUR SHIT. GOOD LUCK FINDING ME.'

I slid the card into my newly acquired jeans and turned to look at the showers. I really didn't want to walk around covered in dry, sticky blood anymore.

I sighed in relief as the warm water began shooting out. If anyone walked in, they wouldn't be able to see me behind the curtain and notice that I was an intruder.

....Unless said person was a creepy guy.

I held my breath as two men recklessly entered the unisex locker room.

"Whaddya think of the new secretary?"

"She's freakin' hot!"

The two men high-fived and exchanged a few more sexual comments about the secretary before becoming dead silent.

"Do you smell girly shampoo?"

The other man was silent. He must have nodded in agreement. Before I knew what was going on, two shadows appeared on the other side of the shower curtain. I began to panick again, not knowing what to do this time.

"Mind if we join you?"

Just as they reached for the curtain, I cleared my voice and tried to imitate the most masculine voice I could. "I hope you brought your soap on a rope."

The two men let out shocked and confused squeaks and quickly abandoned the locker room. I let out a huge sigh of relief and turned off the water. How much longer could I avoid getting caught?

-----------------

Other than the sound of my leather boots hitting the floor with each step, the stairwell was completely silent. I hated silence. It usually meant that something horrible and/or unexpected was going to happen.

I slid to a stop in front of the giant **68 **painted on the wall and glanced over towards the door. Something told me that I needed to be on this floor. I whipped out the stolen keycard and casually walked through the doorway. I was surprised to find the corridor completely empty. I walked through a second door and glanced around. Still no one, except for a giant ball of red fur in a specimen tank. Someone began tapping furiously on a glass window above me. I glanced up and saw Marlene standing in the room above me, a scared look on her face. The room she was in must have been sound proof, because I couldn't hear a word she was screaming to me. I looked around cautiously before running up the ramp to the upper room.

"Are you alright? What's going on here?"

Her eyes were full of fear as something behind me caught her attention.

'Run away! It's a trap!"

I cracked my mouth to say something, but was interrupted by something cold and metal striking me in the back of the head. I quickly dropped to my knees and clutched my new injury, staying completely still as my head began throbbing and my vision blurred.

"On your feet!" A deep masculine voice barked behind me.

I growled and tightened my grip with a handful of hair. "Are you fucking stupid?! You nearly knocked my ass out!"

It was obvious that he wasn't going to put up with any kind of bullshit as he roughly grabbed me by my arms and carelessly drug me into the tiny control room. He released me and quickly ran to the door, punching in some combination that would lock the door when he left.

"Don't mess with Shinra, little girl," He muttered, shutting the door behind him.

Marlene shot me a confused glance as I rested my forehead against the back of the cool leather office chair. Once again, I had messed things up. They knew I was hanging out with AVALANCHE, and now they knew they were coming.

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Jayden seemed to sprint through the halls of the Shinra Headquarters effortlessly. He had somehow managed to snatch a security guard's keycard ring and his gun, along with his uniform on the 65th floor, so it was impossible for employees to identify him as an imposter. Realizing only later that even security guards had limited access to the upper floors, he decided to take the elevator. He yawned and pushed the 'up' button until the doors finally opened. Once the doors slid open, he grinned at the guard inside and let out a casual "Hey there, buddy."

The guard scowled at him and proceeded to push the floor 1 button.

"Don't 'Hey there, buddy' me, kid. We've got AVALANCHE members roamin' these halls, no thanks to you and your buddies."

Jayden's smile widened as he rubbed his chin. "Oh, really? Up, please."

"I don't take orders fro---"

Jayden roughly shoved the barrel of his newly acquired gun into the guards mouth, a smile still plastered on his face. "Floor 67, please. And give me that walkie talkie of yours."

The guard quickly followed Jayden's rules and curiously glanced at him as the teen boy placed the radio to his lips. It cracked for a moment, and then he began to talk.

"This is Rubber Ducky reporting to Fat Boy Palmer. Over." He chuckled to himself as a high pitched squeal erupted from the radio.

"I'm not fat! Just a little fluffy! And, by the way, these radios are not toys, so please refrain from using them unless there's an emergency!"

"Well, treetop tall and wall-to-wall**(*)**, if it ain't Fat Boy Palmer! He finally put down the lard and decided to join the rest of the world. If it's AVALANCHE you're looking for, well, that would be me. I'm in elevator 1, dressed as a guard. And, I'm on my way to the first floor."

The guard's eyes were filled with both confusion and horror as Jayden placed the radio back into his hand. A loud dinging noise filled the elevator as the doors gently glided open. "Well, it was nice knowing you, buddy." He removed the gun from the guards mouth and fired up at the ceiling, directly where the elevator cable was located. Jayden managed to step from the elevator as it roared down to the first floor.

"Floor 66?" Jayden let out an irritated sigh, remembering that there were no elevators on the 67th floor, except for the specimen one. "I'll just have to walk up to the next floor." He nonchalantly made his way to the staircase as almost every single employee ran for the first floor.

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**AAAAANNNNNNNDDDDD......that's it for now. =P**

**Don't forget to review.**

**On a random note: i know it's kinda confusing if you look at part 1 and then this one. I had part 2 completely written out, and then my desktop decided to eat itself. So, when I finally fixed my computer, I had to completely rewrite this part from my memory of what I wrote about a year ago. x(**

**(*) = kudos to anyone that knows where I got that from. hint: its a game.**

**Sooooo....my 19th birthday is on the 21st of this month, so I'm going to try to write out a super long chapter or a few small chapters to celebrate, so keep an eye out. Love you guys!!! 3**


	8. The Idiot's Guide to Escaping

**So I made a livejournal for you guys to visit for this story. You can tell me what you want to see, what you don't want to see in upcoming chapters, etc. you can find it here:**

**.**

**Anyways...on with the story.**

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Marlene shot to her feet as someone began banging on the door. Thinking that it was just the angry Shinra employee from before, I mumbled a few obscenities under my breath and leaned against the chair lazily. A few seconds later, marlene tugged at my shoulder and pointed to the door. "He says he helped you break into this place."

I shot up too quickly, almost falling back down on the floor. "What do you want?" I groaned, trying to decide which of the many boys spinning in front of me was Jayden.

"It wouldn't be fair if I got to the president first with you locked up. Unlock the door, please."

Happiness and irritation gnawed away at me. I didn't need _his _help, but If I didn't accept it, who knows how much longer we would be stuck in there.

"I don't know what the code is."

He stared blankly at me, then shook his head and sighed. "Just push the damn buttons, sweetheart."

"Don't call me sweetheart, jackass." I placed both of my hands against the glass and glared at him before turning to the keypad.

It seemed like I had been pushing in every number combination until I finally got irritated and gave up. "This thing must be busted. 1,2, and 3 are the only numbers lighting up."

Jayden shot me a pathetic look that clearly yelled, 'Honey, just give up and step away from the keypad'. "Ummm....have you tried 1 2 3 yet?"

It was true. I completely hated Jayden. He was the only person who had bothered to call out my blonde moments. "Of course I have!" I lied, feeling somewhat dumber after his comment. I swiftly punched the numbers and smirked at him as the door slid open. "Ha, it was 3 1 2," I lied again.

He cocked an eyebrow and smirked at me, easily seeing through my lie. "I'm sure it was."

He placed his hand on my shoulder and pointed to the specimen container below. "Now before you run off acting falsely victorious for making up the _worst _lie ever, are those your friends down there?"

After spending all of that time hunched over on the floor in the tiny control room, I had failed to notice Aeris and Red XIII in the specimen container. "Umm....yeaaah..."

He pushed his way between me and Marlene and glanced at the many buttons and controls in the room. "Ha! It's this one!"

"Hey! Don't let them out! This floor is swarming with Shinra employees!"

The doors flew open with a loud buzz, and Jayden turned away with his hands resting on the back of his head. "Not anymore. I told 'em I was an AVALANCHE member on the first floor."

Hearing that didn't make me feel any better, seeing as how the real AVALANCHE probably was just now arriving at the building. My vision blurred and I began to panic. Without thinking, I sprinted down the ramp towards Aeris and hugged her tight, blurting out whatever.

"Ohmigod I'm so sorry! Now Shinra is going after Cloud and the others thanks to that idiot up there! I'm so sorry! Are you hurt? Wow, I never realized it before, but you're really short..."

I pulled away from Aeris slowly, who looked very confused. She smiled and shook her head. "It's okay, I'm fine. Did...did you say that Cloud was here?"

I nodded, a strange look plastered on my face. "We came here....well...I came here alone to get you and Marlene. But he's on his way here with the others."

Our conversation was cut short by Red XIII. "I hate to break up your conversation, but don't you think we should get out of here before someone catches us?"

Though I hadn't known him for that long, I immediately knew that Jayden was going to get cocky and tell Red XIII about his stupid little plan. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the specimen elevator began to move, and there stood Rude and Tseng, along with Hojo.

"We can do this the easy way, if you'd like," Hojo laughed, pushing up his thick glasses. "All you have to do is surrender the Ancient to us and turn yourselves in."

"Nahh, the hard way is much more fun," Jayden smirked and placed Marlene on his shoulders. When I turned to say something to him, he mouthed 'run' and took off. Aeris grabbed my hand and began to sprint towards the stairs. I turned my head as we made our way through a labyrinth of hallways, feeling somewhat horrified as Rude and Tseng began to catch up with us.

"No elevators," I muttered to Aeris and Red. She nodded and took us back to the stairwell. I knew we would be screwed if we took an elevator, but I didn't expect the two Turks to do what they had done next.

I arched an eyebrow as Tseng came to a stop and muttered something into his hand radio. Just as we had reached the 61st floor, Rude had jumped from the stairway above us, landing in front of the staircase. We turned to go back up, and Tseng appeared, leveling a gun to my head.

"This is painfully familiar, isn't it?" he asked, somewhat smirking. I made a move to jump from the railing, but Elena suddenly appeared in the doorway below.

"Fuck..." I muttered, finally accepting defeat. I sunk to the floor as the Turks closed in on us. Aeris placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and smiled. "It's ok. If Cloud really is here, I know he'll find a way to get us out." I nodded in response, still glancing at the dirty tile floor beneath me. Tseng grabbed me by my hair and pulled me to my feet, quickly placing some sort of cuffs on my hand to prevent me from getting any kind of ideas of escaping.

As the Turk led me up to the 'prison' area, I began to wonder if Jayden and Marlene escaped safely. Hatred was too soft of an emotion to describe what I felt towards myself for everything that had happened because of my idiotic actions. I was too busy hating myself to realize that we had reached the cells, and that the cuffs had been removed from my wrists. I glanced up and saw Jayden and Marlene sitting in the cell. My anger just worsened when Jayden gave me an idiotic grin and waved.

"Do you have any last words before you rot away in this cell?"

Oh, did I have words for Tseng, but I decided it would be better if I acted on the quote 'actions speak louder than words'.

"Well, since you asked..." I clenched my fist and swung as hard as I could. There was a loud cracking noise as my fist collided with his face. He gave me a confused look, then placed his hand to his nose. I hugged my now aching fist and grinned as the scarlet liquid dripped from his hand.

"That's for hitting Aeris."

The Turk looked as if he could kill everyone in the room as he removed his hand from his hemorhaging nose. Instead of acting on his thoughts, the Turk simply motioned for the guard to come over.

"Put this one in an empty cell. I'll deal with her later."

A cold chill ran down my spine as he said that. The guard agreed and grabbed me by the arm, guiding me to a small, empty cell at the end of the hall. I sat on the bed and jumped slightly when the guard slammed the door. My eyes began to water as I stared at the wall across from me. The fact that no one else was talking or making any sort of noise just made it worse.

"Are you crying?" Jayden blurted out a few moments later, hoping to break the awkward silence.

I placed my face into my hands and let out a loud, irritated moan. "This is all your fault! We wouldn't be in here if you hadn't acted like a cocky bastard!"

It was easy to tell that Jayden was getting agitated as he spoke. "Well if it wasn't for this cocky bastard, you would still--"

"Ohhh, don't even say anything else. I'm too pissed to listen to anything you have to say right now. Yeah. Ok. I get it, you're right." My words sped up and I got louder as I continued to speak and pace around the cramped cell. "So you did ONE good thing. You saved us from our temporary 'prisons'. Congrats! Yayyyy Jayden!" I clapped my hands and cheered sarcastically to get the point across that I was pissed.

Calming down somewhat, I sat back down on the bed and hugged my knees to my chest. I took a deep breath before speaking again. "But, you basically just shit all over our chance of being rescued by telling them that AVALANCHE is here."

There was no response. The cell block was so quiet that you could hear the roaches skittering across the cement floor. I finally gave up on him and slammed my head into the ragged dirty cell pillow, hoping that I would fall asleep and wake up to find that everything that had happened in the Shinra building was a really crappy dream.

As my eyes began to flutter shut, the guards noisily entered the cellblock, AVALANCHE in tow. I shot up from the uncomfortable bed and placed my ear against the door, trying to figure out what the guards were saying.

"Lucky for us, one of your friends ratted you out. In you go."

Just as the cell door shut behind him, Barret's voice boomed throughout the hall.

"WHO IN THE HELL IS THE SNITCH?! I'll pump yer skull full of &%$#in' lead!"

My heart beat against my chest wildly out of shock. Barret was intimidatingly loud in person.

"Yelling isn't going to get us out of here," Tifa added gently, most likely hoping that she wouldn't trigger another scene from the AVALANCHE leader. Barret mumbled something that was inaudible from my cell. I finally got the nerve to stand up and speak when I heard a dreary sigh come from Cloud's cell.

"It's okay Cloud. Aeris and Marlene are here, too." I immediately regretted my decision to speak as everyone began talking at once.

"Are you the dumbass that told 'em we were here?! DAMN!"

I smirked and placed my face between the metal bars. "No, but said dumbass is in the cell right across from yours. Ya know, just thought I'd let you know. Just in case the guards let us out for any reason."

Jayden kicked the wall between our cells, obviously angry at me for blaming him. I went back to the flimsy bed and decided to sleep, not wanting to hear the whole conversation between Aeris and Cloud.

------------------

It was unclear what exactly woke me up later on in the cell. It could've been the cold breeze coming from the door, or it could have come from that creepy feeling that something or someone is watching you.

"Mornin~" Jayden said in a sing-songy voice. I gasped and shot up, giving him a confused look.

"Door's open." I shot him a look that said 'thank you, captain obvious'.

"And there's a dead guy outside?" His smile turned to a frown, most likely out of disappointment that I was not surprised or amused at all.

My muscles ached horribly as I struggled to get up from the uncomfortable bed and join the others in the hallway.

It was pretty disgusting seeing the guard sliced open and his intestines ripped out. I gagged and buried my face in Jayden's shoulder, trying not to vomit at the horrible sight and smell.

"Look at who's being friendly now."

I pulled away from him and shot him a dirty look. "Or am I? I could've been trying to vomit on you, for all you know."

"I'll go on ahead," Red XIII interrupted. My eyes widened as I turned back to Jayden.

"What? Have we been separated into parties yet?"

Jayden shook his head and simply muttered a 'just follow me' as we took off in the opposite way of Cloud, Tifa, and Aeris.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't we be going up to President Shinra's office?"

Jayden shot me an annoyed glare and began following Cloud and the others. "Happy now?" he growled, balancing Marlene on his shoulders. It was pretty hard catching up with them, considering the floor was littered with corpses and a pretty disgusting trail of blood.

"It looks like it leads up," Red noted, stopping in the room where we were held prisoner previously. I gagged as the bottom of my boots became coated with fresh blood. Jayden looked like he was enjoying my misery as I gagged every time my boots made a squishy, squirting sound.

"Suck it up. You've only got a few more steps."

I nodded as Jayden pointed to the winding staircase. It was a great feeling, knowing that I was about to get out of Midgar.

------------------

"He's dead...The leader of Shinra, Inc. is dead..."

Everyone finally filed into the room in a circle around the newly deceased President's desk. I stared blankly out of the window where Rufus would appear shortly, then back at the staircase where we had just come from.

"What are you staring at?"

"Hm? Oh...nothing...I was just....daydreaming."

"In an office full of dead people?"

"Yeah."

"Daydreaming?"

I crossed my arms and nodded with my head slightly tilted, acting as if what I told him was completely normal.

"You're a weird one."

I ignored his last comment as I stared towards the window again. If we were going to get Marlene out safely, then it would be a good idea to stay behind with Cloud and Tifa. Unfortunately, my plotting was interrupted as I was knocked to the ground by Palmer. Sure, getting shot by Tseng sucked, but getting run down by Palmer was much more traumatizing.

My expression was blank as everyone ran by me, never acknowledging the fact that I had nearly been knocked out by an old fat guy.

"Just stay in here with me, Marlene. 'Kay?" I forced a smile across my face as I sat on the concrete floor indian style. I distracted myself by shoving my pant legs into my boots, hoping that Marlene didn't want to talk, let alone do anything. I wasn't good with kids. Even fake ones in videogames. Fortunately for me, Marlene was just as shy. She stood quietly in the middle of the room, watching as Rufus gave his long-winded speech to AVALANCHE. He kinda reminded me of an old guy...always talking about god knows what, whether anyone wanted to listen or not.

"Hurry up, Ashley. We're leaving."

I gave Tifa a confused look as she scooped Marlene up in her arms and descended from the stairs. I got up slowly and took my time, knowing that she would change her mind and stay behind. Tifa looked as if she wanted to ask me what took so long as soon as I got to her. "Go ahead and catch up with the others. We'll wait here for Cloud."

I crossed my arms and let out an irritated sigh like any other rebellious teenager. "I don't wanna. I'm staying here with you and Marlene."

When she looked like she was about to object, I tilted my head and cut my eyes at her. Luckily, she never questioned me why I wanted to stay behind.

It seemed like only a few seconds later that Cloud descended from the room above us. Rufus must have been quite a wimp.

"Tifa, you and Marlene go catch up with the others."

I wrinkled my nose and uncrossed my arms. "What about me? You're not leaving me here!"

He stared at me as if he had never seen me before. "You can...go with Tifa?"

"Wrong answer. Let's go, Cloud."

I felt somewhat nauseous as I passed Tifa, hoping that she didn't take what I said the wrong way. The last thing I wanted was to get caught up in the love triangle stuff, making them think that it was a love...square thing.

I followed Cloud through several unfamiliar corridors, until we reached what looked like a garage. I grinned widely as I looked over the many fancy motorcycles lined up on the left side of the room.

"Do you still have that gun from earlier?" He almost sounded as if he wanted me to say no.

"Does it look like I do?"

Cloud chuckled and grabbed what looked like a gunblade from the wall of equipment. "No, I guess not. You're still alive."

My jaw dropped in disgust. Did Cloud just insult me? Before I could say anything, he shoved the blade and a leather jacket in my hands and made his way over to the motorcycles. "Hurry up. The others are waiting on us."

I squealed with joy as the bike roared on. It took me a while to finally get adjusted on the bike to where I could grab my gunblade when I needed it. I gripped the handlebars tightly and sped down the stairs, leaving Cloud in a haze of exhaust.

It took a while, but I finally came to a screeching halt on the first floor, accidentally popping a wheelie on the front tire in the process. I tensed up and leaned back, almost falling off from the bike. Everyone else had already piled into the truck, ready to kick some Shinra ass.

Once we got onto the highway, Cloud covered the front of the truck while I covered the back. Unfortunately, Protecting the truck was a lot harder than it was in game. A soldier snuck up behind me and rammed the back wheel with his bike, sending me onto the front wheel for a few seconds, then swerving towards the concrete wall. The tires screamed as I tried to turn the bike back around. My hand clumsily searched for the gunblade strapped to the back of the seat, and once I managed to grab it, I struggled to keep the bike up and aim at the soldier that had knocked me down. The blade tilted downwards once I pulled the trigger on it, and I watched nervously as the bullet rocketed towards the soldier's back tire. There was suddenly an explosion of black rubber, and I nearly threw myself from the motorcycle when I tried to avoid it. I glanced back at the man in my mirrors and let out a girly squeal. "I finally hit something I meant to hit!"

My victory was short lived as two more soldiers took the fallen biker's place. I swung the large blade carelessly as they suddenly appeared at each side. One of them grinned and pulled out a knife, trying to pop my tires while I held off the other one. Barret finally decided to help by firing his gun arm, nearly hitting me with a few bullets. He began shouting something out me, but I was unable to understand him. The roaring from my bike seemed to be getting louder, and then a cold chill ran down my spine. I sped up to catch up with Cloud, knowing that Motor Ball was close behind us. The giant machine rammed the vehicles, throwing everyone onto the road ahead of us. The gunblade was thrown from the back of the bike towards the very edge of the highway. I gasped as it tilted forward, looking as if it would fall into the slums below. While the others got into their battle stances, I scrambled to my feet and ran towards the sword.

I began running faster once I heard bullets firing. I wasn't going to be left out of the fight. If I just stood on the sidelines, then they would definitely leave me behind for being useless.

I lunged for the sword then spun around quickly, charging for the large machine. I leapt into the air and raised the blade over my head, and suddenly regretted my decision. The Motor Ball hummed loudly as it readied itself to release another explosion of fire. Cloud quickly jumped in and gave it one last slash before it fell apart. Once I finally landed, I stood there slouched over like a child that had done something they weren't supposed to do. Cloud said nothing and walked by me, glancing out at the sky as the sun began to rise.

------------------

The ground seemed so far away as I froze there, suspended in the air.

"It's only 10 feet. Don't be a wuss." Jayden snorted.

My grip tightened on the hook as the wind began to blow. "It's only 10 feet, ya wuss," I mocked, glaring at him. The truth is, it didn't really matter if it was 1 foot or 100 feet. I was terrified of heights.

Cloud walked over to us to see what was wrong. He glanced at me for a moment before stretching his arms out. "I'll catch you."

I looked at him as if he had asked me to beat a heavyweight wrestler over the head with a fold up chair. "I'm fine! Leave me alone! Stop staring at me!"

Of course yelling something like that in front of a group of people was definitely going to make them look, if your stupidity hadn't already gotten their attention. I closed my eyes for a few seconds, then let go and landed on my feet.

"Good job there, buddy!" Jayden added with a hint of sarcasm, expecting me to high five him. Instead, I jabbed him in the stomach and joined the others.

"We'll head to Kalm and restock on supplies. Is everyone ready?" Cloud asked, glancing around. Thankfully, everyone had said yes.

As we headed out into the field, I stood between Tifa and Aeris, who were chatting happily with each other. "So Ashley," Tifa began, catching my attention. She glanced at Aeris, who giggled in response.

"What do you think of that Jayden boy?" Aeris chimed in, finishing Tifa's sentence. I cursed under my breath, realizing that we were probably going to be talking about the guys as we walked.

"He's a jackass." I said flatly.

"Aww, that's too bad," Tifa began again. "Marlene says that he really likes you."

I began feeling sick to my stomach. I wasn't really surprised to hear that. He acted like any other idiot that had ever hit on me. "Let's talk about something interesting."

The girls exchanged looks once more and they began walking closer to me. "What do you think of Cloud?"

"Have you guys ever been to Costa Del Sol?" I blurted out, hoping to end the conversation before it began.

They both laughed and began talking to each other again, almost whispering. I looked ahead at the guys, watching in amusement as Jayden ran around with Marlene on his shoulders. It was somewhat cruel, but I began to wonder how else that boy would twist things and mess up the whole timeline. Sure, I shouldn't have been here, but he shouldn't have either.

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**Aaaaand...that's it with the whole Midgar thing. thank god. I hope this chapter didn't bore you guys too badly. Please review. =]**


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